Adam Byram is a software developer & team lead in Oak Ridge, TN. These days, he's making our healthcare system better at his day job and working on random fun side projects from mobile apps to meal planning software.

Published

iPad Thoughts

Don’t buy an iPad unless you plan on spending a good bit on apps up front…otherwise, you won’t be able to make the most of the device.

The keyboard is better than I would have expected when in landscape mode. I still like to attach the Apple Bluetooth keyboard if I want to type a lot – but the built-in keyboard certainly gets the job done. If you don’t type many numbers or special symbols, it’s possible to type at a really good clip.

Book reading is fantastic – both in iBooks and Kindle for iPad. iBooks is the prettier app in general. I love the Kindle background image though – it changes based on time of day. As expected, Kindle has a much larger selection. If I buy new books, I’m probably going to lean toward the Kindle for portability reasons. Importing ePub books into iBooks works fine and they look very nice – so I’ll still use it to read my books that are purchased outside of either store. If you need to read a PDF book, you’ll want to look at GoodReader (or other apps)…the PDF reading interface in GR isn’t as good as iBooks or Kindle, but the text is perfectly readable and it gets the job done.

Battery life is pretty fantastic – it looks like I can get 2 days of moderate use on a charge. Very happy.

The official Apple case is good, but overpriced. I got it because it has a mode to angle the iPad like a keyboard and it really does help. It also has a way to stand the iPad up so you can watch movies or make a virtual laptop (with the Bluetooth keyboard). I definitely prefer with a case to without it, but the case itself just doesn’t feel quite up to Apple quality construction wise. The seam around the outside is super large and annoying sometimes.

The screen collects tons of fingerprints – it cleans up quick and easy, but if you look at the screen on an angle or in bright light, then you’ll notice them quite a bit. I haven’t found them too distracting, but they are there.

This is the first iPhone OS product that I’ve really wanted multitasking on. It’s not a laptop replacement as a whole, but certain things are better than on a laptop/desktop..but it would be even better if multiple background apps could run.

The app store is a bit of a mess right now – Apple is actively changing it each day, but it’s still hard to find apps In the store without knowing the app name. It was far worse on Sat, but it’s still not quite there.

All in all, I’ve very happy with the purchase. I do still want a stylus though – I just can’t take notes with my fingers and the keyboard isn’t quite fast enough for me. If I have a Microsoft Courier plus an iPad, I think that will be everything I need for my mobile productivity. We’ll see – I’m excited to see what new apps come out in the next few months…some pretty amazing things are possible now, so it will be awesome to see them. And yes, this whole post was written on the virtual keyboard on the iPad…and it was a pleasant experience. 🙂

Adam Byram is a software developer & team lead in Oak Ridge, TN. These days, he's making our healthcare system better at his day job and working on random fun side projects from mobile apps to meal planning software.